A costly vice

Over the past year, after establishing some financial stability for myself after my move, I have developed a vice that has taken its tole on my wallet. This vice is my somewhat ridiculous lust for technology. It all began back in Dec of 06 when I wanted my first big purchase to be a flat screen TV. The decision was self vetoed by my more logical side as at the time we had no furniture and decided that that would be a better purchase. Throughout that portion of time though, the lust stayed strong.

In March of this year, I bought myself a new desktop PC. For about a month I budgeted a good system for a reasonable price. The total price in the end was nothing that would break the bank and overall was a well founded purchase. However, at the last minute, I decided I wanted a flat screen monitor to take advantage of the DVI card that I'd bought and the budget went out the window.

Around Mid-summer, I decided I needed a new phone even though the phone I was using worked fine. After some phone lobbying, I purchased myself the KRZR from Rogers even though I didn't really need a new phone.

From then to December I was pretty good in terms of keeping this beast quiet. Then came boxing day sales and the roar of desire for that flat screen TV I'd wanted the previous year. Now since it had been a year, I figured I'd break a little and get the TV. The 32" LG that I bought was a good buy for the price I paid in the end so it didn't hurt too much. The laptop that found its way into my cart wasn't a super smart move though. It wasn't a super necessity, but moreover just a lustful purchase.

So why a confession now? Well with all the HDMI and audio features of the new TV, I find myself looking at Home Theater systems... Home theater systems which I don't need but would like to have. There's also the PS3 that plays Blu-Ray discs idea that is lurking in my head. And with all that sitting in my head, I'd like someone to tell me that spending all this money at once would be foolish and that saving money would be the wiser choice. Then after they say it, keep saying it so that eventually it processes in my wee little materialistic brain.

I suppose its better than a drug or booze addiction as there is something of value left over time but that's not a full justification for this technology addiction.

Looks like its time to channel some will power to stop this.

Some day I'll be bigger than my body gives me credit for

This past Wednesday, a lot of the details surrounding the first Vancouver Jiu Jitsu club were put onto paper and thus the club as an existing entity became more official. At the point when this happened I was ecstatic but beyond that I felt as though a barrier into a whole new world of social maturation had disappeared. Its a growth area that I've always been aware of and is one of the reasons that I made the big jump when I did. There were points last year when I saw all of this fading away and me being left with half the dream of it coming true. Now that's its actually going to unfold it justifies all the persistence and sweat along with the despair that brought me to this point. Getting here has been a small victory and the first step in this new stage of growing. I'm very much looking forward to the rest of this journey and the man I'll encounter at each step of the way.

That and making more ridiculous videos.

A new set of resolutions

With the various dialogs that run through my head these days it occurs to me that this blog might actually stay going in a self introspective manner. This past week I've been contemplating what my new resolutions might be with me actually being successful at most of the resolutions last year. This is what I've come up with:

1) In the last four months, in a realization that Jitsu Van was going to take off, I began to train pretty intensely so I wasn't a fat slob on the mats. During that time I went from 192 to 172 and my stamina increased quite significantly. This year, I'm hoping to get myself down to 165 as that seems to be a healthy weight for my size.

2) Jitsu Van is about to take off in a few weeks. While I'm sure I'm going to have a rockin good time with all that will come with it, I'd like to make it a point to step back every so often and just soak it all in. (Hopefully at such points, they'll be other instructors to teach such as to avoid strange silences)

3) This past year was good to me. On the inside I dezoned karma wise and just found a neutrality that hadn't been there for a while. On new year's though I realized that it would have been nice to have a counter part to share a New Year's kiss with. Thus, this year, I'm setting my sights on positioning myself to get a New Year's kiss.

It shouldn't be too hard to find success when it comes to these three things as they're pretty simple in nature. Time will tell though.